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Style points are nice at Ohio State, but more points on the scoreboard are nicer: Bill Livingston

Braxton Miller looks to throw vs. Wisconsin

Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller connected on his fourth touchdown pass of the game to help the Buckeyes beat Wisconsin Saturday. It was a good win over a tough opponent, but not as dominating as style-conscious fans and official had hoped, says Bill Livingston.
(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- For Urban Meyer, victory is his trade, and he is its ultimate practitioner --outside Nick Saban, Alabama and maybe other teams and coaches in the SEC.

Until the Buckeyes get a chance at the Dixie dynasties in a bowl game, however, style has to close the perceived gap. And there was style enough Saturday night to convince the devil to wear hellfire scarlet and soot gray.

Ohio State donned shiny helmets with a chromed-up look, which topped their "rivalry" uniforms and gave the team a futuristic feel, as if the Millenium Buckeyes were shifting into hyperspace.

Braxton Miller was back after suffering a knee sprain to remind Heisman voters that he is at least better than everybody in the Big Ten, including the flavor of September, backup Kenny Guiton.

Rock-star recruits prowled the sideline.

LeBron James in the pregame Skull Session pledged eternal fealty to OSU, a school he never attended, but, y’ know, would have -- except he took himself and his "family"and loyalty"torso tats first to the Cavs and then to South Beach.

ABC-Television was here, providing both problem and opportunity for Ohio State under the lights. Wisconsin was in town, and the Badgers are the Buckeyes' prime-time rivals. The Badgers have made three straight Rose Bowl trips, two of them related directly or indirectly to Ohio State’s NCAA violations.

Michigan is the traditional rival, but the Wolverines have been through the retirement of Lloyd Carr, the Rich Rodriguez incompetency, and Brady Hoke calling OSU "Ohio" since The Game was last for Big Ten bragging rights in 2006. So Wisconsin is the Midwestern yardstick to measure OSU teams by.

The Buckeyes had fallen two spots to fourth in both major polls since the season began. A pall of smoke from pre-game fireworks ushered them onto the field. The huge, Scarlet-fevered crowd was whipped into the kind of frenzy that resulted in a 63-38 rout of Nebraska last year. This was the worst thing to happen to the Cornhuskers other than either the Dust Bowl, or an even bigger whipping laid on them by Wisconsin in the 2012 Big Ten Championship Game, or perhaps the hiring of their home fans-cussin', blowout-suffering coach, Bo Pelini.

The most favorable projections of the course this game would take cast it as some kind of muscular golf. The Buckeyes were touted as the only Big Ten team in the Championship Flight. The rest of the Big Ten was one big plodding stereotype, unable to cope with such speed as Meyer has recruited. To hear some tell it, the Buckeyes don t kick off, they kick-start their engines.

The 31-24 victory showed that OSU is good, but not as shaking, quaking, firecracking good as their fans hoped.

The Badgers had left points on the field in the first half, missing a short field goal. They had given Ohio State a second chance at the end of the first half after cornerback Sojourn Shelton dropped an interception.

Miller's third touchdown pass of the half followed immediately. The touchdown was a 40-yarder to Philly Brown, who was the beneficiary of a staggering coverage bust by safety Dezmen Southward. One second was left on the clock.

The team that makes fewer errors often wins, and that was as much the prosaic winning formula for Ohio State as were Miller's four touchdown passes in the game.

So was the kicking game. The backspin punter Cameron Johnston could put on the ball kept backing the Badgers up nearly to their goal-line. That's the kind of stuff Jim Tressel loved -- field position, the punt is the most important play in football, and Zzzzz, wake me when the fireworks start.

For Miller’s part, a sprained medial lateral ligament had lamed him and his Heisman candidacy ever since the first drive of the second game of the season against San Diego State. When he came back Saturday, he brought a hot hand with him, throwing for touchdowns of 25 yards to Evan Spencer and 26 to Devin Smith in the first half.

The latter was a back shoulder throw so precise in execution that all the footwork drills and throwing reps finally came to fruition for the quarterback, and all the touch that was sometimes missing finally was found and emphatically displayed.

But the Buckeyes were also lucky. The Badgers stripped freshman Dontre Wilson of the ball, in the first half, but it flew out of bounds. A lost fumble on a botched punt by Philly Brown was nullified by an illegal formation penalty on Wisconsin. A sack of Miller was reversed by a facemask penalty.

This was planned as a big statement game, however. Muted fireworks were sparkling and popping after each Buckeye touchdown. But they begged for more noise on the field.

So after a third-quarter interception, the Buckeyes were on the scoreboard again.

Wilson shook a leg free from one tackler, Miller scythed down another would-be tackler with a rolling block, and Wilson reversed his field and gained 15 yards where there seemingly was nothing

The touchdown came after Wisconsin linebacker Joe Schobert blew up a third-and-goal play from the one-yard line, but, while retreating, Miller put a pass where it almost couldn't go. Brown, the only player with a shot at the ball, caught it in the end zone for a 17-point lead after three quarters.

The Buckeyes did not close well after that, but the fact is that Wisconsin is not ranked in the Top 25 (23rd) because poll voters like cheese, although, you know, who really doesn't? This was presumed by many to be the de facto Leaders Division title game.

It wasn’t complete dominance, but it was victory, despite the national skepticism of the Big Ten’s caliber of play, over a very tough out. Meyer is now 17-and-0 here. Failure to make a ringing statement in a rare showcase game on a weak schedule might be a telling flaw later. But for now, style never trumps the scoreboard at Ohio State.

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